PLIGHT OF UPPER EAST HEALTH PROFESSIONALS (PAGE 35, OCT 5)

FOR years now, there has been serious discussions about why medical doctors and allied health workers refuse to take up appointments in the Upper East Region.
Several reasons have been assigned for the failure of doctors to accept postings to that part of the country.
During the past two weeks, the debate has got to a head with accusation being levelled against the Medical Director in charge of the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, Dr Aduko Amiah, as the main cause of the problem.
The accusers alleged that the medical director, who has worked in the hospital for more than 26 years, was frustrating young doctors who report to work in the region, hence their refusal to stay on.
They further alleged that the medical director, who at the time of filing this report was away in China on official duties, had monopolised the place and running an iron clad administration, making things difficult for the others around him.
However, in a sharp rebuttal to the allegations, the management of the hospital has jumped to the defence of the medical director, emphasising that the allegation is totally false.
Addressing a news conference in Bolgatanga, the acting Medical Director, Dr Richard Anongura, said the issue of doctors refusing posting to the region was an age-old problem not only in the region, but also all the three northern regions.
He said it was not necessarily as the result of the attitude or management style of any individual, but rather due to economic, social and career issues.
Dr Anongura said economically, doctors shied away from the region due to lack of opportunities to earn extra income from private practice, a situation commonly referred to as locum.
On the social front, Dr Anongura said doctors and other health professionals shied away because of the lack of good schools for their children’s education and other social amenities that made life bearable elsewhere.
According to the acting Medical Director, career-wise, doctors and other health professionals posted to the region felt they were being sent to “Siberia”.
He said the doctors claimed that when they were posted to that part of the country, they hardly got the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and skills through conferences, seminars and long courses, which were available to their counterparts down south.
Dr Anongura said as there were a few doctors in the region, they were unable to even go on their annual leave and because other health professionals refused posting to the area, they were unable to go on transfer for lack of replacement.
“Despite all these challenges, no special incentive packages are put in place by the government and health authorities to entice the needed health professionals to accept posting to the place.
“The scanty motivation packages by the individual health facilities are not enough to attract the required doctors and other health professionals to come to the region and deliver health care. The real problem, therefore, lies with the institutional arrangements and not individual personalities,” Dr Anongura said.
From the foregoing, it is clear that all is not well as far as healthcare delivery in the Upper East Region is concerned, and immediate steps ought to be taken to address the problem.
The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr John K. Awoonor-Williams, confirmed that health delivery in the region was in crisis.
He said three out of the nine districts in the region had no hospitals, so patients who had referrals went to the other six district hospitals and the Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga for treatment.
According to him, the Bongo District Hospital, which caters for a population of about 100,000, had no doctor while the regional hospital had only three Ghanaian doctors—a gynaecologist, a dentist and one other doctor who is on retirement but has been engaged on contract.
He said the doctor–patient ratio in the various districts in the region was 1:40,000.
“If we look at all these, we are really in crisis, adding that among the District Directors of Health Service, there is only one who is a doctor with the rest being public health nurses who are working very hard,” Dr Awoonor-Williams said.
He said so critical was the situation that two out of the eight doctors at the Navrongo Health Research Centre, which is mainly for research work, have been deployed to work in the clinical areas at the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital and the others at the regional level looking at clinical issues.
Dr Awoonor-Williams said over the past four years, the region had lost about 21 doctors either through transfers or pursuit of further studies.
“We must find solutions to the problem. The situation is getting worse, despite efforts to get doctors to come for locum services,” he stated.
The regional director cited an instance where a doctor who was approached to offer locum services demanded GH¢4,500 instead of GH¢1,500 being offered plus accommodation and transport for one month.
According to Dr Awoonor-Williams, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service was aware and everything was being done to ameliorate the situation.
“We have to continue to create the environment to solve the problem. For the past three years, only one out of 19 doctors posted to the region reported for duty,” he stated.
He said as part of efforts to solve the problem, the Regional Directorate of Health Services was trying to institute some measures to address the issue.
According to him, one of such measures was the idea of sponsoring candidates and bond them to come and work in the region after completing their courses.
Dr Awoonor-Williams proposed the creation of a fund from the Savannah Development Fund to be kept at the Regional Co-ordinating Council or the Regional Health Directorate to assist students in medical schools who would be bonded after their studies.
He added that the directorate was working on staff accommodation and other attractive incentives to motivate health workers who would accept posting to the region.
Responding to the concerns, the Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, said in the interim, apart from organising series of medical outreach for specialists who would offer their services in the region, he would approach the Ministry of Defence to make available aircraft available at Tamale to fly persons whose conditions were critical to Accra for medical attention.
Ghana in general and the Upper East in particular have an obligation to work hard towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals one, four, five and six, being eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reduction in child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Another important aspect of the Millennium Development Goals is the adoption of realistic measures to address the acute shortage of doctors, which all Ghanaians should strive to achieve.